After a wild and crazy night of meet n’ greets here we are. Good morning Barcampers! I started blogging this morning on the bus (in tribute to Tony) and I will be posting content throughout the day today. It won’t be a true live blog but recaps and updates from today’s unconference will be published on the fly.

Stay tuned to this blog post (just hit refresh) to get all the latest. My photos will also be posted on my Flickr under my set “Barcamp Vancouver 2007“. Everyone’s public photos are also tagged “BarcampVancouver07“… and did I mention last night everyone drank a LOT of beer? Yeah…

9:04 am First order of business… COFFEE! After that, checking out the wall of presentations – basically for the unconference anyone can lead a session on anything and sign up to preach, teach or just discuss the topic of their choice. We then have the choice to participate in whichever track in whichever time slot tickles our fancy.

9:26 am Where’s Duane? Introductions and thank yous were just made and those who signed up to lead a session are discussing their ideas to give everyone an idea of their topic and proposed conversation (see wiki for topics already suggested prior to the event). The official festivities (and by that I mean geekiness) get underway at 10:00am.

So far I’m super interested in Jordan, Tanya et al doing their blog/site monetization talk although John Biehler talking about ‘hacking the iPhone in Canada seems to be drawing the most interest…. and I swear someone just cried out “get him!” hehe.

9:44 am I forgot to mention that my hubby can’t be here today because he’s working for the man. I’ll do my best to represent out many podcasts. Everyone’s sad that he’s not here but we’re also all very excited that he is in fact working.
9:50 am The schedule is up.

10:00 am I’m starting off with Tod Maffin who’s leading a session on the tiny little tools and shortcuts that make everyday life a little easier. For example, if you have a Mac you can hit Ctrl and + to zoom your screen. You can also put two fingers on the trackpad of a Macbook while holding Ctrl and scroll/zoom at the same time. FUN! He’s also featuring TinyArlam and Facebook Sync for use with address book, as well as File Chute. ImageWell, OmniDisk Sweeper are featured as well although Tod says while Omni is great at finding hard drive-eating space on your computer (“Ever wonder where your 120gb of space GOES?), to use the ‘delete’ function you will have buy the full version of the program for $15.

Very simple tool, which I could really use because I think I got mascara on my Macbook’s keyboard… silicone keyboard cover. “Not to be used as a condom,” notes Tod.

10:30 am Still going with the gadgets and widgets, Tod’s opened up the floor and Ian Bell is showing us how he customizes his Adium. He’s also introduced WeatherPOP, which is totally something I could see John using.

Time for some tips for Windows users, since we can’t leave them out. Ean Jackson has stepped up to talk about the new Plaxo and YouSendIt.

10:50 am Now on to Firefox extension, lots of useful tools directly from Firefox although the most groundbreaking tidbit of info was just shared by Tod… you know how you can hit Command T for a new tab in Firefox? Well if you happen to close that tab then think “Oh crap!” you need that same site/tab open again you can easily under your actions by hitting Command Shift T. TADA!

Ever needed an online tutorial for basically any program known to man? Try Lynda.com and for a subscription fee you can get Quicktime training videos from basic to in-depth.

David Drucker just took the wheel and showed VisualHub that converts ‘any video to any video’ – awesome.

11:00 am Next up in the big/main room here at Workspace is Lee LeFever talking about video complexities, presentations and things explained such as Social Bookmarking in Plain English.

Click To Play

11:30 am Great simple concept to get a message across. Questions around the room are just asking Lee what he used to make the video – basically just a Sony handy cam, Final Cut Express and Garage Band for audio. There is also a website called DotSub on which anyone can add sub titles to a video voluntarily, in any language of choice.

11:35 am Sessions are changing at 11:30 (although I think I can smell lunch so it’s getting hard to concentrate). I’m sticking around the main room in Lee’s session. There are a couple more going on in the smaller rooms around Workspace, I’ll have to go check the schedule again to see what I’m missing out on.

12:04 pm I had lunch. It was good. Boris talks of domination… of the geeky kind. The next sessions start at 1:00 pm, more fun will follow then.

12:30 pm Travis Smith just mentioned that he went to use Facebook Sync, one of the programs Tod Maffin mentioned earlier. Unfortunately it looks as though it’s been shut down due to Facebook terms of service and red tape so it’s not the super cool program it once was. If anyone knows more about this, please feel free to leave a comment and join the conversation.

12:40 pm I was trying to upload some pics using my Flickr Uploader but it timed out and froze. I wanted to force quit but it wasn’t an option when I clicked on it in the dock, just “Quit”. I went to the top Apple menu and selected “Force Quit” then chose the program but John Biehler just told me a neat tip. If you click on the program in your dock and hold the click, press Option and “Quit” will turn into “Force Quit” in the pop up menu. HOT.

Props to the sponsors – on the back of our hot pink shirts
Photo credit: the unabonger on Flickr using his iPhone

13:10 John Biehler has a very captive audience, dazzling us all with his iPhone knowledge, tips, tricks and his fancy presentation using the new iWork.Discussions include everything from how to use it in Canada, to taking screenshots, getting YouTube to work, and applications. It’s crazy how many people are working on hacks and improvements, it seems like every couple of hours a new version of an app or new tip is being released.

13:40 PhotoCamp2007 with Kris Krug and friends including Matt Trentacoste, Andrew Ferguson and Duane Storey.

Up first is Andrew talking about photo blogs and Creative Commons. Many links given to helpful photo sites including Strobist and Photocritic.

Matt Trent gets technical and computational when it comes to photography, showing off more precise tricks and applications with which you can clean up and edit digital photography. “…giving a short presentation of some of the assumptions that people have made on how photographs are taken, and how these assumptions are no longer valid when moving into digital photography.”

Up next Duane takes the floor to learn us all a little about his fantastic HDR shots (and post processing in Photomatix). If you haven’t seen him work his magic with amazing scenes around Vancouver, here’s a taste of what he can do (left).

14:20 Kris is going over some basics, more helpful tools you may not have known. Locking exposure on your digital camera and editing the meta data (exif data) of your pics, which can be found when you click “more properties” near your photo’s information on the bottom right, when viewing it on Flickr.

Almost all new digital cameras save JPEG (jpg) files with EXIF (Exchangeable Image File) data. Camera settings and scene information are recorded by the camera into the image file. Examples of stored information are shutter speed, date and time, focal length, exposure compensation, metering pattern and if a flash was used. [Flickr Meta]

14:35 pm I was google blog searching for Barcamp Vancouver blog posts and came across Zak’s where he talks about the pizza-alternative that was served up for lunch.

…we now have hippie-deluxe (and I don’t mean that in a pejorative way) vegan allergy-sensitive food for BarCamp Vancouver. Hippie-deluxe, in this case, means organic ingredients from local farmers (within a day’s drive) [Polymorph]

He didn’t have a photo up so I’ve snapped one, it’s the thumbnail to the left – good eats!

15:00 A panel of local bloggers and internet marketers has assembled at the front of the main room here at Workspace for a conversation about social media and marketing.

Jordan Behan, Lee Lefever, Monique Trottier, Tanya Davis, Linda Bustos, and Jeffery (I hope this is the right link, sorry!).

All are touching on social media and applying that to marketing just “not in a spam-y way”. After all the intros there’s a discussion about press releases and there’s mention again of PRWeb (I believe Lee mentioned this earlier as well). PRWeb isn’t mainsteam media, it’s not old the old stuffy way of getting your news out but it distributes so that your story can be found. The point is to get it out there, searchable, found, and then written about – if it’s talked about, it will get distributed even more and picked up by industries who care about that content. Jordan also makes mention of PRLeap on which you can also post news releases for free with a link back to your site.

15:45 The discussion has moved into, your site or blog being your voice and company online – how to deal with negative comments? Delete them? Reply in a polite manner and thank the person for their opinion? Also, should news releases be posted to group or community blogs? When does a blog post become spam? Should it be okay if it’s informative and sparks a conversation or is just stating news and saying ‘go to this site’ acceptable? Blogs and having a plan for a community you’re going to be creating. Facebook groups to blogs vs Second Life.

Linda brings up using very simple social media tools like Ma.gnolia and Twitter to announce and publicize new posts and updates – although be sure not to ‘over Tweet’. Jordan states that marketers need to, “put the information into the hands of the people that will evangelize on your behalf”. He’ll be creating a Facebook group based on the session and everyone is encouraged to join.

(between sessions various people have been blowing a conch shell to announce the end of the time slot… I think that sound will be haunting me for the rest of the weekend)

Photo credit: penmachine on Flickr

16:02 Speaking of Facebook, Phillip Jeffrey is up now discussing applications and development, opening the floor up to questions about creating groups, etiquette and quick tips (RSS feeds for notes, and status updates). The discussion turns to privacy, if you have someone blocked what can/can’t they see? Also, customizing your news feeds: do you want to know more about Bob’s groups he joins and less about Sally’s photos? You got it. Question from the audience, “why do I care if Phillip just removed Ghost as one of his favourite movies?” is it just voyeurism?

16:40 Second half of the Facebook talk coming up: Intro to Facebook Platform Development with Greg Andrews. A co-worker of mine, Gerald Bauer asked me to plug the Vancouver Facebook Developer Garage, which Greg started off by mentioning. It will be a Vancouver unconference dedicated to Facebook development. Stats: Facebook is the #1 events site on the net, as well as #1 photo site yet it’s entirely open for people to dig in and create applications. It’s social and viral (e.g. application invitations).

Greg also touches on approvals, such as over poking, over messaging and over inviting people to a group… I can think of a couple people who have had a run in with this.

17:00 That’s all folks! Of course I couldn’t be in every session at the same time so browse some of the links and blogs mentioned throughout the post to see a feel for the event through others’ eyes. Time to clean up Workspace and get some caffeine in me. Thanks everyone!!

Over the last few years Bill Lin and his crew have organized Vancouver’s own version of the Amazing Race, and have done a fantastic job. My sister and I were lucky enough to participate earlier this spring and I have to say it’s a really great adventure.

Since September 2004, The Amazing Hunt introduces this new racing style which provides an opportunity for you to discover a city’s hidden treasure… its culture, landmarks, and history. Our goal is to create a positive and healthy lifestyle in your community while promoting local tourism, business, and charity. [The Amazing Hunt]

The races run every few months in various cities around the lower mainland. Their endurance levels vary as well and there are always new challenges. Although the recent race on August 11th had a fantastic turn out, Bill and his crew are looking for volunteers to help out with the upcoming event in Surrey on September 8th. Visit him over at the Amazing Hunt Blog for more information about racing and volunteering for these great teambuilding events.

Upcoming races:

September 8th 2007 Saturday – Surrey (Space Limited)
October 20th 2007 Saturday – Downtown Victoria

Jenny and I are doing the Surrey race, which won’t be a foot race this time, so if you’re up to the challenge sign on up and we’ll see you there!

I have yet to write an entry on Vancouver Coffee about a certain place in Gastown that just makes my morning with their large coffees and breakfast sammiches, but until then I thought I would toss up another Miss604.com poll.

While I wait for John to get ready and escort me down to 7-11 I’d like to actually find out the best, quickest, tastiest place to grab a cup in Vancouver. Yes, I said 7-11, that’s because it’s cheap and the one on the corner by us seriously tastes great. With so many options out there, including $15 cups from Artigiano I just wanted to know.

It’s been a year since the Komrade Sessions EP was released on iTunes and Chin Up Buttercup, the 4th full-length album from Canadian singer-songwriter Holly McNarland, is in stores now [Website][MySpace].

We just caught her last night on Urban Rush where she performed the first single from Chin Up Buttercup, “Every Single Time”.

I’ve seen Holly in concert a few times and have to say she’s one of the funnest artists to watch, plugged in or acoustic. In some strange turn of events the last time I saw her was at Central City in Surrey with Randy and Lahey of the Trailer Park Boys. For those growing up in Vancouver in the 90s listening to CFOX and hearing Matt Good for the first time, you probably remember Holly’s singles “Numb” and “Elmo”.

If you enjoy her new single visit the Much More Music countdown page and give it some love by voting and the new album, Chin Up Buttercup is in stores now. It’s also available for purchase on Amazon, interestingly enough its suggested pairing is Hospital Music, buy both for $26.95 CDN.

My sister’s beau would not believe her when she told him that raccoons can be rather ornery creatures.

I confirmed this with a few stories as did John who is always amazed at how tourists in the park stop to take pictures of the nocturnal mammals. They can be dangerous, can hiss at you, not be intimidated and carry rabies. There was an outbreak of rabies in skunks and raccoons in Stanley Park not too long ago in fact [Stanley Park Ecology, 2004]. Recently the animals have become quite the nuisance in the suburbs as well.

A pest control expert says the Lower Mainland appears to be experiencing an upswing in the number of raccoons being born…

…One cat owner living in the in Tsawwassen’s north end suspects raccoon’s are responsible for the loss of two neighbourhood cats. Only yesterday, a Tsawwassenite living on 53A Street came home to find five raccoons in his kitchen, threatening his cat. Police had to shoot one of the raccoons after the homeowner injured it with a golf club. [News 1130] [Story also on Canada.com]

We kind of knew the population was on the rise when John spotted a raccoon mommy and daddy engaging in ‘private’ activities in a tree outside our apartment. When I arrived home from work they were still at it… 5 hours later.

We usually giggle at tourists taking photos of these creatures mostly because they seem so ‘everyday’ to us. But it’s a little more than that, you never know with these animals, especially the ones you find in the back alleys downtown, those urbanized raccoons are the worst, eh.

Last year at this time I was gearing up for my first live blog and my first blogging unconference. Since 2004 I’ve kept this here site alive and it was the first time I could step out into the real world and meet like-minded people for a major geek out session. Actually, we did attend a podcasting meetup earlier that spring but this was on a much larger scale.

BarCamp is an ad-hoc unconference born from the desire for people to share and learn in an open environment. It is an intense event with discussions, demos and interaction from attendees. Anyone with something to contribute or with the desire to learn is welcome and invited to join.

When you come, be prepared to share with Barcampers.
When you leave, be prepared to share it with the world. [Wiki]

Barcamps are hosted in many different cities all over the world, we’re lucky enough to have the 2nd annual here in Vancouver that is completely booked up with over 70 people on the waiting list to boot.

I’m hoping I’ll be able to do some more liveblogging as a service, since I really don’t have anything I can lead a session on, really.

Here’s the schedule for all those 120 people attending, for more info check out the wiki or Jordan’s post, since as one of the organizers, he’s got ALL the details you’ll need.

Friday, August 17:
Food and drink at the Alibi Room
* Appetizers all evening
* Drinks starting at 6:30 pm
* We’re in the private area downstairs
* The Alibi Room, 157 Alexander Street @ Main
* Sleepover at Workspace, 21 Water Street, Suite 400

Saturday, August 18:
Conference day all day
* Start at 8:30 AM with day organization
* Pastries and coffees available
* Pizza lunch to be delivered at noonish
* Workspace, Suite 400 – 21 Water Street
* End at 5:30 PM

Side note: I was super happy with my Barcamp shirt last year 1) brown is nice and 2) the women’s style fit like a glove. It’s been confirmed that we’ll have the same shirts this year but they’ll be a lovely fuchsia. Hot damn. Stay tuned for blogging from the unconference this Friday and Saturday, the post category being: Barcamp (and John’s will be under BarcampVancouver07)

Photo credit: john bollwitt on Flickr

Last summer I was mentioned in a Metro Vancouver news article about being a local blogebrity. While the story was very flattering and had good intentions at one point the writer mentioned I took photos at Wreck beach. Of everything, this disturbed me the most as I know proper beach etiquette and would never do such a thing. This afternoon while at the very same beach John and I witnessed a bit of a scuffle regarding said etiquette.

6. Get nude! Respect nudity and the privacy of others and experience the joys of naturism! Gawking, staring, or making rude comments is not appreciated! If nudity offends you, please check out Vancouver’s many other beautiful beaches instead of mocking our naturist lifestyle. Ask prior permission to photograph. No unauthorized film-making! [Wreck Beach Etiquette]

A man had come down to the beach and was taking general photos of the beach, people and scenes with what was described as a “telephoto lens”. As he made his way down the beach some regulars took notice and decided to let him know that the community does not appreciate having their picture taken.

This escalated and about 6 males from the beach confronted the man, they asked that he please delete the photos he just took since a) he didn’t have permission b) the community frowns on such things and c) he could have been taking photos of children and that’s simply unacceptable. As the man refused, the accusations that he was doing something “creepy”, “dirty” and “sleazy” especially in regards to children started to fly. He defended himself saying he was just a photographer out on the beach for a day but the men from the beach refused to accept this and repeatedly asked him to delete the photos in front of them. At no point did it get any more violent than this but from the mumurs around us up on shore, apparently this wasn’t the first time a photographer has been given a hard time.

After about 20 minutes John and I got up to play frisbee, the police had been called and we don’t really know how the rest panned out.

There are pages of Wreck Beach photos on Flickr that I can find, and 98% of them are of sunsets, sand, tidal pools and the forest. The others are direct photos of other people, e.g. if John would have just taken my photo sitting at our blanket. I can definitely see how people would get on edge and how there must be rules to help a society like this survive. Thinking about yesterday’s situation, you’d think it would have been solved if the man would have just opened up his bag, taken out the camera and deleted the pics. But it doesn’t seem as simple as that.

Last night I had a vicious migraine and passed out around 9am. I woke up this morning, got out of bed and my legs didn’t want to work. After thumping down onto the bedroom floor and telling my body it was time to wake up I made my way to the computer. I had my morning brew then read my compulsory blogs, finding some kick ass posts from Keira and Corinna. Following in the eclectic and fun style of both, here are a couple tid bits for today.

Okay well they could be cousins at least